Latest news with #Brawn
Daily Record
10-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
Councillors refuse Coupar Angus solar farm on prime agricultural land
Cllr Brawn argued "Coupar Angus has done its bit for renewable energy already" Perth and Kinross councillors have refused an application for a solar farm on prime agricultural land near Coupar Angus. The plans - which went before the Planning and Placemaking Committee on Wednesday, July 9 - had been recommended for approval by council officers. It was refused by a single vote after objectors raised fears about going from living in open countryside to being in the middle of an industrial site. Elected members in the SNP administration - who voted to approve the application - were outnumbered by opposition councillors who voted for refusal. Milton Keynes-based Greentech Invest UK (9) submitted plans to develop a 22MW solar farm on 46 hectares of land 320m north-west of Peattie Farm, Kinnochtry near Coupar Angus. The solar panels themselves would occupy around 24 hectares of the site. PKC received 44 letters of objection to the application and just one letter of support. Kettins Parish Community Council and Burrelton And District Community Council both objected to the proposal. Campmuir resident Dave Ritchie, addressed the council on behalf of local residents opposed to the proposal. He said: "While we all recognise the requirements to produce green energy, the use of prime agricultural land is a real concern, particularly in light of the recent political and economical uncertainties when arguments for food security are stronger than ever. "There's only eight per cent of Scotland that's prime agricultural land, so there must be plenty more room on other land to put these solar farms on. We've got brownfield sites, rooftops and plenty of unproductive sites." He highlighted concern about the swathe of renewable energy developments in the Coupar Angus area. Mr Ritchie said: "There's a gathering pace of solar development - all on prime agricultural land. "Of particular concern to residents is the prospect of being sandwiched between two separate developments - one which is at Markethill, 250 acres, (which is awaiting a decision from Scottish Ministers) and this one here at Peattie which is 110 acres. "Before long, we'll no longer be living in the countryside but on a solar farm." He told councillors the arable land was used every year to grow crops such as potatoes, barley, carrots and turnips. Objector Polly Jones' home neighbours the site. Addressing councillors, she said: "My concern, I believe, is shared by all of my neighbours and many of the residents of Campmuir. "We were actually really shocked to hear this was being considered for approval, given the size of it and the impact it's going to have on all of us. "Currently, we look at a wide open expanse of beautiful agricultural land. We bought our properties due to their location, at a price which reflected that setting and we pay our council tax to reflect that value and setting. "If this proposal is allowed I and my neighbours will be faced directly with a minimum six-metre wall of solar panels." With the application site opposite her home being on a slope she explained they were "very sceptical the screening will have any effect and even once the screening is fully grown, we're still going to be dwarfed by the panels that are visible higher up the hill". She added: "As developments - like these - crowd in and around the substation there is a risk in Coupar Angus (with multiple developments proposed) that if they go ahead we won't be living in the countryside any more but in an industrial site. "I feel, in Scotland, we don't have to have the trade-off between energy and food because we have a lot of land that is not prime agricultural land." Greentech senior planning manager James Jenkins told councillors: "We estimate the project will deliver over £4.5 million of construction work that can be delivered by local contractors and specialists." He said rent paid to the landowner would "ensure they could continue investing in their farming enterprise and maintain it as a viable operation" and the community would benefit from around £500 per MW (£11,000). When councillors questioned the use of prime agricultural land, PKC's Major Applications and Enforcement team leader Sean Panton told councillors: "The loss of prime agricultural land is regrettable but national planning policy does allow it." National Planning Framework 4 permits development on prime agricultural land for "essential infrastructure and there is a specific locational need and no other suitable site". Blairgowrie and Glens councillor Bob Brawn moved to refuse the application. The Conservative councillor said: "This part of the world, Coupar Angus, has already lost prime agricultural land to battery storage at Pleasance Road; last month we, as consultees, agreed to battery storage at Kettins on prime agricultural land; Markethill is still in abeyance and could happen (but we can't use that as a justification); there's also a solar farm development at Keithick. "The exception for the use of prime agricultural land is for essential renewable energy. I would argue that Coupar Angus has done its bit for renewable energy already and I don't believe this is now classed as essential in this area. "I feel the need for prime agricultural land outweighs the need for renewable energy in this area." Conservative councillor Ian James seconded the motion for refusal. SNP councillor Ken Harvey moved to approve the plans and claimed the land was "in a poor state and doesn't appear to have been used for anything other than silage the past few years". Following a brief recess, he corrected himself and said: "I said it was getting used for silage. Obviously not, there are potatoes and what looked like turnips being grown." He added: "The loss of prime agricultural land is outweighed by the benefit of solar energy we're getting. We are constrained by where the substations are for such developments and we need to take due cognisance of that going forward with the other developments but I think this development is reasonable." It was seconded by Bailie Mike Williamson. Six Conservative, Independent and Liberal Democrat councillors voted to refuse the application and the five SNP councillors on the committee voted to approve the application. It was refused by one vote.
Daily Record
15-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
Perth and Kinross Council monitoring its IT systems around the clock
A Perth and Kinross councillor questioned how secure digital systems were after major cyber attacks to other organisations Following several recent high-profile cyber attacks, councillors have been assured Perth and Kinross Council's Information Technology (IT) systems are monitored non-stop. M&S, The Co-op and Harrods have all been recent victims of attacks and both West Lothian Council and Edinburgh City Council also appear to have been targeted last week. And PKC itself has been subject to security and data breaches in the past. At a meeting of Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) on Wednesday, May 8, Blairgowrie and Glens councillor Bob Brawn sought assurance PKC's digital systems were adequately protected. At last Wednesday's meeting, the Conservative councillor pointed to the increased move towards digital technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He referenced the suspected ransomware cyber-attack on West Lothian Council, which hit the headlines the previous day. Cllr Brawn asked: "As we're evolving more and more into a digital age, are we protecting our systems as we evolve?" PKC's strategic lead for Customer and Digital Services Alan Taylor assured councillors, the local authority's IT staff worked on a "security-first principle" and were "incredibly proactive". Mr Taylor said: "Yes, we do everything we can. "Our IT staff operate to a security-first principle and we are obviously incredibly proactive. In terms of what happened to the retail sector recently, we circulated an advisory note around all of our IT staff. "We were aware of what happened at West Lothian. I saw one of my colleagues going into Carpenter House at 7am just to ensure there were no issues with ourselves in Perth and Kinross. "We have 24/7 monitoring. We were one of the first councils to do that, with a security operations centre and our IT management team meet regularly with our security IT staff." PKC's strategic lead and monitoring officer for Legal and Governance Lisa Simpson added: "Just to give some assurance, the Information Governance and Data Protection and Information Security team that work under mine, work very closely with Alan and we are involved in all of the digitally-related projects particularly AI. AI governance is an integral part of that project's success." In September 2024, PKC announced a security breach involving one user's email account and access to emails containing the bank account numbers and sort codes of some businesses, suppliers and customers. At the time, a council spokesperson said: "The breach was identified and secured promptly, but eight emails were accessed. Some of these emails had attachments which may also have been accessed which contained bank account numbers and sort codes of some businesses, individual suppliers and commercial waste customers." The council apologised for the incident and pledged to directly contact affected individuals "to inform them as soon as possible". The local authority urged everyone to be "cautious of any unusual emails claiming to be from Perth and Kinross Council" and check all council emails come from @ addresses. In November 2024, PKC's Scrutiny and Performance Committee was told there had been a 77 per cent increase in data breaches, rising from 95 in 2022/23 to 168 in 2023/24. The report, put before councillors, suggested both greater awareness of recognising data breaches and increased staff workloads across the council may have led to the significant rise in 2023/24. However, there were 134 in 2021/22 and 146 in 2020/21 so the much lower figure of 95 in 2022/23 was also thought to be "anomalous" In the 2023/24 financial year, there were 133 unauthorised disclosures, 33 were email errors, one was due to unauthorised access and one was loss of data. Eight cases had to be reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) but the ICO was satisfied with the council's response to the breaches and no further action was required. In the November 2024 report, PKC's data protection officer (DPO) Jillian Walker said: "Given the breadth of all local authorities' activities and the millions of transactions involving personal data that are processed each year, no local authority can state categorically that it is fully compliant with data protection legislation. It is the opinion of the DPO, however, that the council continues to achieve a reasonable and acceptable level of compliance."
Forbes
04-05-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Brawn GP's 2009 Championship-Winning F1 Car Sold For $3.8 Million At Miami Grand Prix
The 2009 championship-winning Brawn GP Formula 1 car was sold this weekend at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix. The Brawn BGP001 chassis 001/01 is one of the only three cars ever built by the team that year and is the only Brawn vehicle to be sold publicly, fetching $3.8 million. The auction was hosted by Bonhams in collaboration with South Florida Motorsports, the organizers of the Miami Grand Prix, and it took place on Saturday evening right in front of the Miami podium at Hard Rock Stadium. 'This car represents the ultimate Formula 1 fairy tale – a revolutionary design that redefined what was possible,' said Louis Frankel, Miami's head of sales for Bonham|Cars, ahead of the auction. 'Chassis 001/01 is a piece of motorsport history, and its offering at auction is sure to captivate collectors worldwide. We are honoured to present this unrepeatable opportunity over the Miami Grand Prix, a stage befitting its legendary status.' Chassis 001/01 was used by Rubens Barrichello in all but seven races in 2009 and it was then gifted to world champion Jenson Button at the end of the season. It is currently equipped with period-correct Bridgestone slick tires and has its race-used 2.4-liter Mercedes-Benz V8 engine but lacks gearbox internals. Brawn GP has one of the most incredible stories in the history of the sport. It's the only team to have won both the constructors' and drivers' championships in its debut season, having secured both titles in its only year in F1 in 2009 with a minuscule budget compared with its rivals. A year earlier, in 2008, Honda made a decision to pull the plug on its F1 team which had been running since 2006. The global financial crisis and the lack of much success on the track forced the Japanese marque's hand. But the struggling team was lucky to have Ross Brawn on board during this tough time. He was brought in by senior manager Nick Fry to serve as the team's technical director. Brawn was already a big name in motorsport, having led TWR-Jaguar to victory in the Sports Car World Championship in 1991. He then moved to Benetton where he oversaw Michael Schumacher's first two world titles before joining the German legend at Ferrari and witnessing the team secure six titles in a row. As the clock was ticking down and the new season was fast approaching without an owner in sight, Brawn and Fry decided to take a huge gamble to rescue the team, purchasing Honda's F1 operation for a dirt-cheap price of £1 and rebranding it Brawn GP. Even though they purchased it for nothing, they still needed funding and deals to get the team back on its feet. They managed to secure a last-minute deal with Mercedes-Benz for engines and signed on a few brave sponsors willing to take such a big risk. Brawn was able to retain Button and Barrichello's services, and while they had hardly any time to test the cars before the 2009 season began, they put their faith in Brawn and his newly formed squad. Fortune then smiled upon them when engineer Saneyuki Managawa found a loophole in the 2009 regulations that allowed them to build a double diffuser. They soon knew that they created a beast of a car when they later took the BGP01 chassis 001 - the one sold at auction - to the track to be tested by Button. In the 2009 season opener in Melbourne, Brawn GP stunned everyone with a one-two finish headed by Button. It wasn't a stroke of luck however as the Brit went on to clinch his second victory of the season in a rain-shortened race in Malaysia, finishing 22.722 seconds ahead of Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber. After securing third in the following round in China, Button brought home four straight wins from Bahrain to Turkey. And while those were his last wins of the season with ten races still to go, Barrichello netted two more victories for the team. Thanks to 15 podium finishes throughout the season, the outfit claimed its sole constructors' championship with 172 points, beating Red Bull by 18.5 points. Button took home his and the team's first and only drivers' title with 95 points - 11 points clear of Sebastian Vettel. Brawn GP, the team that was born from the ashes of Honda and achieved the unthinkable, was then sold to Mercedes at the end of the 2009 season.
The Guardian
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Jonathan LaPaglia: ‘My muscles are T-shirt muscles – they don't do anything'
What's your biggest takeaway about human behaviour from hosting Australian Survivor for 10 years? What I've learned is that there's a really deep seated desire to belong. It's interesting to watch how people struggle with that. Because the conceit of the game is that you're trying to vote out one of your own, right? And the best way to do that is to blindside them … and so when you get voted out, I think it's quite confronting – even though it's a game, and everyone goes in knowing it's a game. I think we inherently want to belong. If you auditioned for Survivor, would you pick the Brains or the Brawn team? Well, my muscles are T-shirt muscles – they don't do anything, they're just there for looks – so I think they'd be kind of useless. And I'm somewhat of a thinker, so I probably would gravitate toward the brains tribe. That being said, people have been known to say that I overthink things, so I might end up being useless for both tribes. I think I have to be the host, because I'd be hopeless as a player. If you had to appear as a contestant on a reality TV show tomorrow, which one would it be? The Great Australian Bake Off? There's something kind of goofy about that which appeals, I don't know why. I can't bake at all. I'm terrible. But if I could provide comedy just for one episode, that would be good. You studied medicine in Adelaide and worked in emergency rooms for a few years; when was the last time you used your medical training? Professionally, maybe 30 years ago. Actually, I picked up the books again in Covid and started studying to sit the medical board [examinations] here in the US. And I don't know why – I didn't really think it through, because I don't know who would employ me at my age. But for a couple of months, I hit the books – and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done, trying to recall information from 35 years ago. Because a lot of the stuff I had to learn was from my first years as a medical student. So iIt was a lot of basic sciences and stuff, and trying to dredge up that information was physically painful. What book do you always return to, and why? I usually don't read books again, but the one book I've returned to is The House of God by Samuel Shem, from 1978. I've read it a bunch of times, and maybe it's because of my medical background, because he was a doctor and he wrote this book about being an intern. But it's very sardonic in its approach, it has a very David Sedaris tone to it. I felt as if he nailed the whole experience of being a medical intern, but in a very entertaining, humorous way. What's the oldest thing you own, and why do you still have it? Maybe my 1967 Pontiac GTO. I've owned it for 20 or 25 years. I don't use it much, and I keep thinking I should sell it, but every time I pull it out, it's such a work of art that I just can't get myself to part with it yet. If you could only drive one car for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? I have a 1973 Dodge Challenger that I built myself. It's a bit of a Frankenstein – it has a new motor gearbox, all that sort of stuff. And even though it's not perfect, it really has an appeal because my hands created it. What's the best lesson you learned from someone you've worked with? I don't know where I got it from, but the philosophy that I have is: you're better off dying on your feet than living on your knees. Stand up and do what you think is right in the moment, rather than acquiescing to someone else or playing it safe. What are you secretly really good at? I'm good at watchmaking. It started when I was doing an Aussie show called Love Child, a period drama set in the late 60s. They gave me a watch from that period, and it really piqued my interest in watches – particularly from the 60s and 70s – even though it didn't work. At the end of the show they gave it to me, and I took it to a local watchmaker who just kind of buggered it up – basically, I was going back and forth for six months, and it never really worked properly. So then, because I've always had an interest in anything mechanical, I decided to figure it out. I bought toolsand books, I went online, and I started teaching myself through trial and error, stumbling my way through. It just kind of snowballed from there. And now I have too many tools. If you had to fight a famous person, who would it be, how would you fight them and who would win? Maybe Will Ferrell, just because I think he's hilarious. A thumb wrestle. And I think he'd probably win, because there's no way I could keep my shit together. I would lose it. Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn premieres 17 February on 10 and 10 Play.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The Brawn GP F1 Car That Jenson Button Sued For Is Going To Auction
Winning the FIA Formula One World Championship would be the zenith of any racing driver's career. Occasionally, an F1 team will gift a car used during the title-winning season to its champion as a gesture of thanks. The Brawn BGP 001, given to Jenson Button after his 2009 championship, is going up for auction at the Miami Grand Prix this May. Besides the unlikely Cinderella title run, the British driver had to sue the team for his contractually obligated gift. Bonhams is auctioning off Chassis 001/01 during the South Florida F1 event. During the 2009 season, Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello drove the car to four podium finishes but never won a race before swapping to Chassis 001/03. For those unfamiliar, Brawn GP sprouted from the ashes of Honda's shuttered factory F1 team. The Japanese manufacturer sold the team to technical director Ross Brawn and team CEO Nick Fry for a single British pound coin in 2008. Before Honda's withdrawal, the team effectively threw away the season to develop its 2009 challenger. Brawn entered the next season with a paradigm-shifting chassis and a competitive customer Mercedes engine fitted under the cover. Button would go on to win six of the first seven races, but he wouldn't win again in 2009. The FIA declared Brawn's controversial and game-breaking double-diffuser legal, and the other front-running teams mirrored the design. Brawn, with minimal resources, just couldn't keep pace in the development race. However, the points lead was large enough for Brawn and Button to hold off an ascending Red Bull Racing and wunderkind Sebastian Vettel. Louis Frankel, Bonhams Miami Head of Sale, said: 'This car represents the ultimate Formula 1 fairy tale – a revolutionary design that redefined what was possible. Chassis 001/01 is a piece of motorsport history, and its offering at auction is sure to captivate collectors worldwide. We are honored to present this unrepeatable opportunity over the Miami Grand Prix, a stage befitting its legendary status.' The fairy tale ended quickly, with Mercedes purchasing the team and Button departing for McLaren ahead of the 2010 season. Button had to file a lawsuit against the team to get his gift car, according to Autocar. Despite it being explicitly stated in Button's contract, Brawn didn't want to hand any chassis over to the world champion. The team stated that it could afford to do so because of the limited number of cars built for the title campaign. Once Mercedes took over, the German automaker offered to build a BGP 001 replica for Button. He rejected the offer, desiring a chassis he raced. The Barrichello-driven car was a compromise that both sides accepted. Button held on to the Brawn BGP 001 until last year, when it was sold to a private owner, according to Motor Sport. Despite the rocky epilogue, Brawn GP will be forever known for the against-all-odds championship victory that Formula 1 actively works to prevent. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
